histofthought1

238 Economic thought before Adam SmithFull employment, ofcourse, meant coerced employment, and Laffemas calledfor an end to idleness by putting the idle to work, the reluctant to be forcedinto it by 'chains and prisons'. Taverns and cabarets were to be severelyrestricted, and confirmed drunkards arrested and put into the pillory.Protectionism begins by trying to ensure national self-sufficiency in goodsthat can be made at home, and then continues by expanding the definition ofwhat can indeed be made. For when profitability on the market is abandoned asa criterion, virtually every good in creation can be made - at some cost - athome. IfAmericans wanted to, they could undoubtedly grow all their bananasin hothouses in Maine or Montana at astronomical cost. But what would be thepoint, apart from subsidies to a few privileged hothouse growers?One of Barthelemy de Laffemas's daftest projects, which as controIIergeneralhe did his best to put into effect, was to make France self-sufficient inone of her favourite luxury imports: silks. Many of his pamphlets and practicalefforts were devoted to force-feeding an enormous expansion of theFrench silk industry, hitherto small and confined to the south ofFrance.Laffemas insisted that the climate of France was ideal for raising silkworms;any belief to the contrary, any subversive talk that France was largelytoo cold and stormy for silk growing, was merely propaganda spread by the'evil designs of certain French merchants, retailers offoreign silks'. Laffemaspointed to his own successful silk-growing, to King Henry's planting ofmulberry trees (on which silkworms were fed). He advocated a law compellingall property owners, including the clergy and monasteries, to plant twoor three mulberry trees per acre. He painted a beautiful picture of vast profitsthat were sure to flow from mulberry trees and silk culture. Laffemas alsoclaimed magical medicinal properties for mulberries: they would cure toothacheand stomach trouble, relieve burns, chase away vermin, and be anantidote to poisons.Even though Laffemas persuaded the king to pour hundreds of thousandsof livres into fostering the growth of mulberry trees and silk culture, and theking duly ordered each diocese in France to establish a nursery of 50 000mulberries, the great silk experiment proved an abject failure. The climate ofmost of France indeed proved inhospitable, a product of hard reality ratherthan misinformation spread by selfish and traitorous importers. The mass ofthe French clergy understandably dragged their feet at suddenly being forcedto become silk producers. France continued to be a heavy net importer ofsilks.Laffemas's main if not only disciple was his son Isaac. At the tender age of19, young Isaac de Laffemas (1587-1657), keen to become the heir of hispowerful father in every sense, published a History of Commerce in France(1606). The History was scarcely a memorable work, distinguished mainlyfor the fawning praise which he lavished upon his father and on King Henry,